Walter Lindrum, a Billards genius at work

[baldblindgit]

if you ever want to see just what genius is please go to You tube and type in Walter Lindrum in the search engine, there are several old films of Him, two in particular where he makes a 100 and the other a 200 break.

The sheer effortlessness of his ability is mesmerising, he looks as if he could do it with his eyes shut, truly he was that good. One can only imagine how many hours of practice he put in to achieve such skill.
Cheers Bbg

[noel]

if you ever want to see just what genius is please go to You tube and type in Walter Lindrum in the search engine, there are several old films of Him, two in particular where he makes a 100 and the other a 200 break.

The sheer effortlessness of his ability is mesmerisi, and won in 1952.ng, he looks as if he could do it with his eyes shut, truly he was that good. One can only imagine how many hours of practice he put in to achieve such skill.
Cheers Bbg

baldblindgit...

you are NOT blind ... bald... who knows... git... probably because like me you are aware of Walter Lindrum!!!

Lindrum was amazing... he was runner-up to Joe Davis, in my opinion the greatest snooker player ever, in 1937, 1937, 1946 World Championships, and won it in 1952!

Australia had and will have a glorious snooker presence!


=o)

Noel

[bongo]

I can't explain how good he was...

[baldblindgit]

Noel bless you, i think you are thinking of Horace Lindrum who was Walters nephew, a very fine Snooker player and Billiard player, but i think he suffered from the shadow of the Mighty Walter, they were enormous shoes to fill.
Its quite interesting that when Joe Davis (who at the time of course was regarded as the greatest snooker player ever) heard Walter had died in 1960, he said if Walter (who of course was completely obsessed by billiards) had taken up snooker seriously he would have been the best as well

[Templeton Peck]

He went in-off on his first shot, what a sh*t player!

[KeithinFrance]

I've already written about Walter in another thread, explaining the huge gulf there was between his rivals and himself: in a first to 21000 points competition he would give a 7000 points start to his fellow professionals!! That's as if in a first to nine, Ronnie would give his fellow pros a 3 frame start!

Walter had to do this to level the playing field, otherwise there was no competition! He'd have won everything in sight!

For all the people who fawn over Ronnie because he can play left-handed, Walter was born right-handed but lost the tip of his index finger in an accident and then learned to play left-handed with which he won all the titles he did! That's talent!

[ADR147]

he is the best player ever to pick up a cue of that there is no question.

[KeithinFrance]

he is the best player ever to pick up a cue of that there is no question.

100% in agreement once more, Andrew. :snooker:

[RGCirencester]

Does anyone else wonder how good he would have been if he had started playing with his right hand? Makes me wonder whether he would have been better or worse using his correct hand. Has anyone seen pictures of his grave? It's truly a sight to behold.

[baldblindgit]

Does anyone else wonder how good he would have been if he had started playing with his right hand? Makes me wonder whether he would have been better or worse using his correct hand. Has anyone seen pictures of his grave? It's truly a sight to behold.

Hi Yes i have seen that on the web, the guy is probably the most 'mythical' player there has ever been, a sort of 'could he have been that great etc etc'
in essence he became 'perfect' at his chosen sport, something unique i think

Joe Davis seemed to have thought so, in another billiards forum there is a story from a poster who actually went to visit Davis, and all he wanted to talk about was how brilliant Walter was! of course Davis was a magnificent billiards player himself, what curious times it was when 000's of people played and went to watch billiards. When Walter came over to England to play Willie Smith and on other subsequent visits it was front page news.
here is the great man himself showing us how easy it is to make a 100 break


http://video.aol.com/video-detail/10...rum/1380852021

Enjoy

[KeithinFrance]

Hi Yes i have seen that on the web, the guy is probably the most 'mythical' player there has ever been, a sort of 'could he have been that great etc etc'
in essence he became 'perfect' at his chosen sport, something unique i think

Joe Davis seemed to have thought so, in another billiards forum there is a story from a poster who actually went to visit Davis, and all he wanted to talk about was how brilliant Walter was! of course Davis was a magnificent billiards player himself, what curious times it was when 000's of people played and went to watch billiards. When Walter came over to England to play Willie Smith and on other subsequent visits it was front page news.
here is the great man himself showing us how easy it is to make a 100 break


http://video.aol.com/video-detail/10...rum/1380852021

Enjoy

I have to admit that it's a long time since I've been so totally in agreement with a post and I enjoyed seeing Walter's wonderfully fluid, relaxed break once again. Thanks very much. Have you seen the 200 break? It's perhaps even better, I think.

Have you seen his record time for a 100 break? It's unbelievable! "Perfect at his chosen sport"; well said, BBG!

[davipp]

Thats right Walter had to use his left hand, I read that his brother Fred was born left handed & his father changed him to right hand.
Walter was never destined to play because his father had problems with Fred who was an alcoholic. At a very young age I think 10 Walter was caught out in his fathers Billiards room. His father gave him the altimatum that if he wanted to learn Billiards he would have to give up school & his mates & practice for hours on end which his father thought would deter young Walter from wanting to learn.
His first intro to Billiards was to knock the white ball only, around 1 certain path on the table for hours on end with his father watching him. His father told Walter he had some business to attend to in town and for Walter to keep practicing that exercise. What his father did though was go outside & watch Walter through the window without him knowing. Walter did not deviate from that exercise which is extraordinary for a 10 yo who would normally start doing something else to alleviate the boredom. His father knew there and then that he had a possible world champion in the making.
Walter Lindrum "A billiards Phenonemom" Andrew Rickets author

[KeithinFrance]

That's dedication and that's what you need to succeed!

Am I not right in thinking that he was voted Sportsman of the Century or Greatest Sportsman Ever or something similar recently? Before Bradman, Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens, Tiger Woods, Rod Laver etc etc?

[davipp]

I vaguely remember he was bestowed something like sportsman of the century. Walter, wasn't rich when he died but he did raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the war effort doing exhibitions. Just to add to my last post, Walter's dad told Walter on one ocassion to have a rest from practice & go and play with his mates, but what Walter did was go to another billiard hall and ask the proprietor for the use of a table where Walter proceeded to practice the routine again. As Walter said there will never be another player like him because no one would dedicate the time to practice like he did, how true.

[baldblindgit]

I have to admit that it's a long time since I've been so totally in agreement with a post and I enjoyed seeing Walter's wonderfully fluid, relaxed break once again. Thanks very much. Have you seen the 200 break? It's perhaps even better, I think.

Have you seen his record time for a 100 break? It's unbelievable! "Perfect at his chosen sport"; well said, BBG!

Hi Keith
yes i have seen the 200, spell binding stuff, i think only 27 minutes for a 1,000 break, his records will never remotely be challenged, can you imagine how many 500 point and above breaks he would have got in practice???

Those fellow players in that golden era of Billards must have wondered what the hell was going on. In 1929 when Lindrum came over to play [B]Willie Smith[/B] in a series of matches (then recognised as the world's no 1) Willie actually beat him in the first game i believe, however Walter cut loose from then on and despite Willie apparantly playing wonderful billiards he was beaten out of sight, with Willie ever the gentleman giving full praise to Walter's efforts in a celebratory dinner.

what is particularly brilliant is how he was able to move effortlessly between scoring methods, top of the table to open play, then back to the tott and then nurseries, even though he was far from 'orthodox' in his rear arm alignment he must have had the most relentlessly consistent cueing action in history, perhaps only Steven Davis, Hendry and Ronnie could compare in consistency of cueing?
Cheers Bbg